It will add the functionality to detect if an open network with captive page needs login credentials or just has a checkbox and a submit button to confirm some kind of terms of usage. An icon will reflect the network's status.

I will look into the option to choose a sound as a notification for a free network. Maybe it will be included in the release.

V.1.1.3

I'd like to add the option to automatically pass the "checkbox and submit button" pages.

V.?

Some time in the future I will add the option to automatically submit the login credentials on captive pages.

I finally published the first update to WiFi Probe on the Android market. For this release, I have added some nice features: Probed networks are stored and their status is recovered once these networks are found again (given they provided Internet access or at least a captive page).

Additionally, I have added a settings menu with some cool settings. First of all, WiFi Probe can now run in the background (not as a service, but if the app is left using the home key or the device goes into standby) and continue scanning. It can notify you when an already probed free network was found again. Another new feature is the auto probe mode. In this mode, WiFi Probe checks each new network that it finds automatically. If the network is free, it will, depending on the setting, also notify you. So you can just start the app, put the phone in your pocket and be sure not to miss a free network on your way.

The first week WiFi Probe is available was quite encouraging, nearly a thousand downloads and about half of the downloaders kept using my app. So look forward to the next release!

Today, I have released the initial version of my first Android app, WiFi Probe. It is a WiFi scanner that has the ability to probe an open wireless network for Internet connectivity.

I got the idea when I was on holiday in the States and was always looking for free WiFis, since I do not have an international plan for data roaming. I quickly got fed up with switching from WiFi settings to the browser and back, just to try if the shiny open wireless network was in fact a free one and not in some way password protected. So I got the idea for an app that does the check automatically.